With the Chinese New Year fast approaching there are plenty of celebrations going on to welcome in the new year. My childhood friend Amy’s yum-cha feast at Princess Gardens today marked the first of them. It turned out when we got to Princess Gardens that quite a few other groups had the same idea – to celebrate CNY early!
13 of us turned out for this feast – a mixture of Amy’s work friends, randoms, uni friends and childhood friends (that would be my bro and I.) For some 13 may not be a lucky number and in fact often in the really supersticious of chinese buildings floor 13 (and 14) will be missing! Knock on wood I’ve never had a problem with the number 13 so here’s hoping it bodes well for the new year.
This is only the second time I’ve been to Princess Gardens. Located just near Bond Street in a road perpendicular to Selfridges I’d say Princess Gardens is a hidden gem of London. Yes the dishes tend to be slightly pricier than what you’d find at the yum-cha places in chinatown but bearing in mind your surrounds and the extremely good quality of the food its not such a bad price to pay (and today the price tag didn’t even hurt that much coming out at only £14 each!) Surprisingly (surprising becuase I thought I’d sampled most yum-cha offerings before) I even tried out a few new dishes including Shredded Mooli Cakes (why haven’t I eaten these before – they are delish!), Cuttlefish Cheung Fung and a couple of desserts – honeyed deep friend lychee and some wierd donut dumpling thing with banana and red bean.
A good feast was had by all. We were having such a good time that a few of us even continued on with drinks first at Bonds (where strangely they were only showing the rugby and not the football) and then at some pub in Paddington. So what I thought would just be lunch turned out to be a 10 hour affair!
Hot on the heels, okay well two weeks after, of Yauatcha being sold by creator Alan Yau to a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority Pat and I decided to finally check out the dim sum on offer by the restaurant. The premium price tag on the dim sum has previously prevented us from treating this place as an every day dim sum dining experience but we thought we better get in to check it out before there was any change to the formula that has so far proven to be a major success for Alan Yau.
Blue is the overriding colour when you first behold the sight that is Yauatcha. Upon entering the restaurant you will see before you an elegant brightly lit modern and cleanly designed room. I’m not sure if bookings are still essential but today at just after noon we were able to dine as walk-ins. We were actually taken downstairs today where there is still a theme of blue from the frosted glass that covers the kitchen and the chefs to the long aquarium running across the front of the bar filled with bright colourful goldfish but suddenly we were plunged into darkness – a Ping Pong-ish style of decor.
The service is as you would expect in a restaurant of this calibre – efficient, friendly and accommodating. Upon first sitting you are presented with the drinks menu which is an almost overwhelming list of teas and wines. You won’t find bottomless pots of simple tea here – not like the pots of tea you get at regular dim sum places at any rate. There’s a large variety of blue tea, black tea, green tea and flower tea on also. Not to mention they also have a wide selection of iced teas amongst which I can recommend the Lime and Passion Ice Tea which is what Pat had and the Melon Ice Tea – both of where were extremely refreshing.
The dim sum menu features some of the regulars such as Har Gau, Shumai, Cheung Fun, and Steam Pork Bun. There were also a number of items I’d never seen before on a dim sum menu a couple of which we tried out including Ostrich Dumplings (quite delicious and self-saucing) and Baked Venison Puff (very similar to Barbecue Pork Puff but obviously with venison.) As the prices were quite high we couldn’t be too adventurous but it would have been interesting to try other dishes such as Chilean Sea Bass Mooli Roll, Native Lobster in Black Bean Sauce, Wagyu Beef Cheung Fun, and Box Dumpling. We couldn’t resist the Jasmine Tea Smoked Organic Ribs, which we also sampled when we went to sister restaurant Hakkasan. They weren’t too bad but not nearly as tasty or fall off the bone as the ones from Hakkasan.
I’ve read plenty of reviews of this restaurant – some good and some bad. I’m happy to report that our experience falls into the good category with no complaints at all about the service or the quality and taste of the food. We didn’t even have to deal with the two hour turn around policy for our table – which I wasn’t even aware of – but that was probably because we ate our food pretty darn quickly. The price tag for our one meal today would have bought us two meals at any other restaurant but it was worth it to check out the hype that is Yauatcha.
I caught up with Rehana tonight and she suggested we check out a restaurant which is reportedly one of the best for serving South Indian food. It has proved so successful that there are actually now eight venues spread all over London. In fact in Stoke Newington, the site of the original Rasa, there are two alone – right across from each other!
Rasa N16 in Stoke Newington is a bit of a journey to get to but worth it. Especially when you consider the premium on the prices on the more centrally located venues.
Both Rehana and I were feeling hungry so nearly everything on the menu was looking good to us. We started off with a Masala Dosa which is a thin pancake filled with a spicy potatoes mix and served with sambar and coconut chutney. Along with this we sampled a number of starters (descriptions from the website):
– Bhel Mix. Fresh crispy chickpeas, bhel, sev, peanuts, onions blended in spicy tamarind juice and freshly chopped coriander leaves.
– Medhu Vadai. A spongy dumpling in a crunchy case, made from urad beans and chillies – served with coconut chutney.
– Banana Boli. Plantain slices dipped in a batter of rice and chickpea flour seasoned with black sesame seeds, then crisply fried. Served with our specially prepared peanut and ginger sauce.
– Rasa Idli. Steamed urad dal (black lentils) cakes topped with chef’s speciality mixed vegetable masala. Served with coconut chutney.
– Kathrikka. Finely sliced pieces of aubergines are dipped in a special batter, blended with coriander and chilli, before frying. Served with a fresh tomato chutney.
Hey I said we were hungry.
We were also going to order a curry and rice but our waiter was like, maybe you should eat the dosa and starters first and see how you feel. This was very good advice because we were absolutely stuffed after eating all of the above. That didn’t stop us trying a couple of desserts though – a rice pudding (Pal Payasam) and semolina sweet (Kesari) served with mango ice-cream.
Everything we ate, with the exception of the Rasa Idli which was fairly tasteless and quite dense, was delicious with my favourite savoury dishes being the Dosa and Bhel Mix (good use of tamarind juice.) Service was very friendly and quite efficient and they didn’t hassle you unnecessarily, which makes for a nice change. Its also great for vegetarians – I didn’t even miss my meat tonight! Surprisingly good value for money.
It seems that in this first week that I’ve been back in London all I’ve done is eat eat eat from going out to Yo Sushi with Sandra (half price – who could resist) on Thursday night, to Thai River Paddington for Mel’s leaving do Friday night and then today Caro and Nate invited me over to their new home for a nice roast whole chicken. Mmm … tasty.
I loooove Japanese food and Sandra has been hyping up the London Nobu Restaurants for some time now. Unfortunately the price tag is London at Nobu is pretty scary so when I found out that I was heading to New York Nobu was the first thing I put on my to do list. Therefore to say I’d been looking forward to going Nobu would be an understatement.
Bookings are a necessity at this popular restaurant but are taken only a month in advance so plan well. However once the booking is made flexing the numbers is fairly easy. We finally ended up with a good group size of eight people. I wasn’t sure how ordering at Nobu was going to work with such a large group but it turns out I needn’t have worried – our waiter was excellent and knew exactly how much to order for us.
Nobu Restaurant is all class. We turned up for our booking about half an hour early but they were still able to seat us straight away. As I said before our waiter was just fabulous – he knew exactly what was on the menu and knew exactly about all the ingredients and he was able to give good advice on how to plan our dining experience (including advising us that it was better to leave the sushi to the end so as not to feel too full for the other food.) I was pleased to see that most of his recommendations matched up with what I wanted to order so that worked out very well. We left it up to him to work out how many servings we would need for the dishes we selected and happily he didn’t over order for us which was nice.
We started out with a selection of five cold dishes which were basically varying styles of sashimi – whether it be with jalapenos, dried miso, and hot garlic oils and hot sesame oils. Every piece of fish was supremely fresh and in combination with the “dressings” perfectly balanced. I think even the non-sushi eaters at our table were pleased and enjoyed the selections.
Fresh Yellowtail Sashimi with Jalapeno
Fresh Fluke Sashimi with Dried Miso
Spicy Miso Chips with Tuna
New Style Sashimi (with hot garlic and hot sesame oils)
Sashimi Salad with Matsuhisa Dressing
The cold dishes where then followed by six hot dishes as seen below. My favourite was definitely the Rock Shrimp Tempura and the two dishes with the Wasabi Pepper Sauch though as my brother pointed out we could have done with a bit more of the Wasabi Pepper Sauce and a bit more heat in it. The signature dish – the Miso Black Cod – was also nothing to be complained about. Perfectly cooked and melt in your mouth, with the sauce penetrating to the flesh, the cod was simply divine.
Rock Shrimp Tempura with Ponzu and one with Creamy Spicy Sauce
Squid “Pasta” with Garlic Sauce
Halibut Cheeks with Wasabi Pepper Sauce
Scallops with Pepper Sauce
Chilean Sea Bass with Black Bean Sauce
Broiled Black Cod with Miso
Of course we couldn’t leave the restaurant without trying out some dessert. I actually probably didn’t need the dessert by then as I was absolutely stuffed but hey whilst we were splurging I thought why not!
Pineapple Trio
Fuji Apple Harumaki
Bento Box
Coconut Jasmine Bombe
Overall Nobu definitely lives up to its good reputation. The food was sublime from quality to presentation to taste. Service was impeccable – with our plates being changed between every dish (a bit excessive at times but a nice touch to ensure flavours weren’t mixed) and with our waiters/waitresses being quite efficient and friendly. Surprisingly the entire meal ended up taking over three hours to consume as each dish was brought out one at a time allowing you time in between dishes to digest. The price tag, though high, wasn’t as horrendous as I was expecting it to be at $US800 for the group. Despite not having too many drinks (a couple of alcoholic ones and a couple of non-alcoholic ones) we did have a lot of dishes and was not bad value for money for the quality of the food we got. It was an equisite dining experience that’s for sure and worth it for a special occasion.
As Gerrard Kenny once sang “New York, New York (So Good They Named It Twice.) And he was right. It is so good. Every visit to New York seems to always bring something new, as well visits to the old, and with the whole family (Dad, Mum, Stephen and Pat) in New York my 2008 visit was an extra special visit.
Reflecting back on the last five days or so it seems that I’ve spent most of this visit eating or shopping. Not a bad thing in most people’s books! Also, for the first time, and I’m not sure why I’ve never done this before, I experienced a bit of what the New York nightlife could be like when I caught up with Mark on a Saturday night. Maybe I’ve never really done it before because in my previous visits the days are usually filled with doing all the touristy things morning ’til night and with all the pavement pounding during normal waking hours the last thing I could imagine was partying like I was 18 again! Heh heh.
Day 1 was relatively relaxed as our flight into New York had been delayed and instead of coming into New York at 5pm the day before we got there at midnight instead, and with all of us not getting much sleep on the flights we’d all basically been up for about 36 hours straight so a sleep in was the first order of the day. Dad, Stephen and I somehow made it in to Manhattan for lunch time but in the time it took me to go downtown with the boys it was already time for me to turn around and head back up town to meet Mirela’s Dad! It was pretty trippy to meet up with him in Manhattan of all places. After grabbing lunch I headed back down town to meet Dad and Stephen in Century 21 for a few hours of serious shopping. I’ve mentioned Century 21 in my New York blog entries before – it’s a department store which is famous for discounted designer stuffs but you’ve got to work for it and dig around if you want anything decent. I was absolutely worn out by the time we headed back home.
Day 2 was a bit of a tourist day with Dad and Stephen. After spending what felt like the morning in Hershey’s and M&M World in Times Square we headed to Rub (standing for Righteous Urban Barbeque) BBQ for lunch. It would have been really good if we’d been able to get the selections that we wanted. Unfortunately the storm the night before had caused their fridges to malfunction and they lost a lot of their meat. 🙁 Still, we made the most of what we got and weren’t we stuffed after we’d finished. What better way to work off a huge lunch than a work out at Chelsea Piers. One of the things I love about America is their love for baseball because this translates in to the very cool batting cages. At Chelsea Piers there are a few enclosures with three different speeds – 30-40mph, 50-60mph and 65-75mph. You’d think that the slow cage would be relatively easy. Instead it proved difficult mainly because the ball came almost too slowly and the anticipation often had you swinging too early. In the video below it doesn’t even look like I’m making an effort! Moving from this to the medium was almost a bit of a shock with the 50-60mph being significantly faster but by the time we got to the 65-75mph the batting was almost second nature. We then wiled away the rest of the afternoon, witnesses a beautiful sunset, on the three-tiered golf driving range overlooking the Hudson River.
Day 3 was a bit of a lazy day with a family (and by family I mean my grandma, two of my aunts and their families and Dad, Mum, Stephen and Pat) yum-cha in one of the largest Chinese restaurants I’ve ever been to. It was absolutely massive! Not the greatest yum-cha I’ve ever had but worth it for the spectacle on its own. After dinner (for which Kathleen cooked up a mean lasagne), with another of my aunts coming down to Manhattan to see us, Kathleen (my cousin) and I headed in for a night out in Manhattan. The main reason was for me to catch up with Mark (who was over here in New Jersey for work.) Another trippy catch up! We met up with Mark at The Ginger Man known for its large number of taps (66!) and wide variety of bottled beers (120!) Trust me to find an English place to meet up in! Ha ha. Well, being in a venue know for its beer I could hardly not try one so I finished my first ever (half) pint of beer ever! I can’t say it was fabulous but not too bad for something that makes me gag just when I get a wiff of it!
Kathleen had a friend we were also going to meet up with (a DJ she met when he DJ’s our cousin’s sweet 16 do) so at just after midnight we headed down to somewhere in Chelsea to another bar. I don’t even know where we ended up but I was glad that we got somewhere to sit. I had a very fun night and even though rolling in at 4am wasn’t going to help us with our early wake up the next day I didn’t regret a minute of it.
Day 4 saw us up bright and early ready to tackle a day at Woodbury Common. Kathleen was gracious enough to give up one of her weekend days, and only on a few hours sleep, to chauffeur us the more than hour drive to the Outlet. I’m not the biggest shopper in the world but I’ve never had so much fun shopping in my life – the time simply flew by. It really helped that Kathleen was there to encourage me. 🙂 The biggest challenge was fitting four people’s shopping into the Mini!
Day 5, my last full day in New York, was a day of eating – beginning to end. After an aborted attempt to go to Central Park for the ice skating we started with lunch at BRGR which is a burger joint specialising in serving organic meats and awesome thickshakes. The black&white shake and blueberry-pomegranate shakes were oh so yummy and really thick enough that I didn’t need the burger to go with my shakes! After lunch I was hoping to make it a trifecta of dessert places starting at Room 4 Dessert followed by Rice to Riches and the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory. Unfortunately Room 4 Dessert had shut down so it was only a quinella of dessert places (unless you count visiting the Egg Custard King Café as a third?): – Rice to Riches. I love rice pudding and Rice to Riches is a concept right up my alley delivering rice pudding in all sorts of flavours with names such as Coast to Coast Cheesecake, Forbidden Apple, Hazelnut Chocolate Bear Hug, Fluent in French Toast and Peanut Butter Pick-A-Peck. Unfortunately I was stuffed so couldn’t get a rice pudding for myself and instead settled for taste-testing several flavours and picking at Stephen and Pat’s selections. All rice puddings had surprisingly good strong flavours. What I really liked about the store were the sayings up on the walls including: “Eat all you want, you’re already fat”, ” The calories you consume here are yours to keep” and “Limit 500 rice puddings per customer.” The only drawback – the puddings are very expensive. I guess you pay a premium for the ultra modern décor and the cool containers and cutlery.
– Chinatown Ice Cream Factory. The catchphrase for this place is Ice cream with a Chinese twist. I love an ice cream store where the Regular flavours are such flavours as Almond Cookie, Black Sesame, Chocolate Pandan, Durian, Lychee, and Taro and the “Exotic” flavours include Chocolate, Rocky Road, Rum Raisin, Strawberry and Vanilla. It has become so popular that they even published their own book: Saturdays in Chinatown, the author of which, Christina Seid, happened to be working when we visited and took our photo!
You’d think that after all that eating during the day we’d be hard pressed to fit anything else into our stomachs. Wrong! We finished the day (and by that I mean literally we finished eating at midnight) with a visit to Nobu, the world famous Japanese restaurant of Chef Nobu Matsuhisa partnered with Robert De Niro amongst others. Review to come separately!
My final day in New York was a sad one. Not only would I be saying goodbye to what is virtually my third home but I was also saying goodbye to my parents and Stephen. We finished our time together with one of the biggest meals ever – at a Korean BBQ in Flushing. We innocently ordered all this food only for all these free extras to turn up. I swear our whole table was filled with free sides, dishes and drinks and there was no room for the food we’d actually ordered! Apparently competition is so tough in Flushing that these are the kinds of measures the restaurants resort to in order to attract customers!
There are many reasons why I love coming home to Australia and one of the reasons is indulging in the Bubble Tea craze. I’m not sure whether it has hit London but if it has it probably hasn’t been a hit to the same extent or if it has I’m not aware. According to the Hazel Tea Shop’s website bubble tea to Taiwan is what coffee or soft drink is to Australia. The bubble aspect of the tea comes from the shaking of the tea and flavouring which results in bubbles. Very refreshing!
But if you drink too much tea, you should be careful, because this may happen to you. How adorable are my parents?!
The good thing about the Japanese loving Surfers Paradise is that there are quite a few good Japanese restaurants to get a simple Japanese meal at. G-Clef is one of these restaurants and as a place that is only open Monday to Thursday for lunch you have to be quick to get in for a meal. With unlimited drinks (iced tea, ice coffee and water) it made for a nice midday break. For those into music it opens as a karaoke bar at night!
The final stop on the Christmas 2007 Friend Catch Up Express was at my childhood best friend Nic’s house at Springfield Lakes. And didn’t she turn it on. She even managed to turn the wet and cooler weather into something resembling summer at last – I couldn’t believe it – blue sky, sun, drier weather, warmth and humidity (though admittedly we could have all done without this last thing!) It was the most amazing day though later I found out that the weather back on the Gold Coast still hadn’t cleared up. This is the view out of her house. Nice right?
Not only did Paul (Nic’s husband) and Nic put on a very nice barbecue lunch they even opened up their home to a couple of our other friends from school Rod and Andrew, and their partners and in the case of Andrew his cute little daughter Tia, so we could have a proper catch up. Whilst the boys did the whole boys and their barbecues things outside and the kids did the running back and forth thing inside and out, the girls stayed inside in the blessed air-conditioning doing the prepping the rest the meal thing (salads, breads etc.) but also the gossip thing.
Its been a couple of years since I saw these guys and its really nice to see everyone with their partners and families. Nic has a truly gorgeous family with Megan, her oldest child, now in grade 3 but seemingly more mature and a very good help around the house (apparently takes after her Dad) and little Alex who, despite being a boy, is exactly as Nic was when she was younger – all bouncing energy, all hyper active and all happy happy happy. New to the family as well this Christmas was Charlie the Wonder Dog who was adorable. I was trying to sneak him into my bag to take back to London with me but Megan and Alex were a little too sharp for me. 🙂
supersticious of chinese buildings floor 13 (and 14) will be missing! Knock on wood I’ve never had a problem with the number 13 so here’s hoping it bodes well for the new year.
